Brea Ca Public Facilities

The city is reviving the tradition of free family movies on Friday nights at the park. From Friday through Aug. 8, full-length movies, including "Beauty and the Beast" and "Homeward Bound," will be shown on a 12-foot screen at the new Arovista Park Amphitheater. Families are encouraged to bring blankets and beach chairs. Kathie DeRobbio of the city's Cultural Arts Division said there will also be live entertainment on certain Fridays.

The City Council has its heart set on finding a way for the Boys & Girls Club to expand, but not on historical City Hall Park. In a decision that had community members expressing shock, and Mayor Bev Perry complaining the rug had been pulled out from under her, the council agreed 4 to 1 to begin looking into an expansion at the Boys & Girls Club's current site neighboring Arovista Park.

Proposed recreational uses of the Brea Dam area will be the topic of a public hearing tonight before the Fullerton Community Services Commission. Most of the land is a wildlife area, but parts of it could be developed for recreational use, said Wes Morgan, superintendent of the Community Services Department. "It's about as open a space as you get in an urbanized area," he said.

After more than 10 years of raffles, bake sales and auctions, various Scout groups were finally able to raise enough money to launch the first phase of renovations of Brea's Old City Hall into a Scout center. About 100 people attended a recent renovation-demolition party to kick off the start of work on the building. "We had Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies turn out to help us celebrate," said Bernie Kilcoyne, president of the Brea Lions Scout House Foundation.

The city is expected to get rolling on its plans to build a skate park today, when the City Council votes on a $200,000 bid by Green Giant Landscape to build a course for skateboarders and in-line skaters. Today's vote will be on the second round of bids the city has received to build the 8,000-square-foot facility at Arovista Park. The previous round with other companies yielded estimates the city said were too high.

The city's long-awaited community center, a $7-million facility featuring recreational opportunities for all ages, is set to open later this month. A ceremony set for 1 to 4 p.m. July 27 will commemorate the completion of the facility, which has been planned for nearly 20 years.

The City Council today will consider issuing $6 million in bonds to pay for the Brea Community Center, under construction next to City Hall. Groundbreaking for the nearly $7-million center was put on hold by the council in December in response to the collapse of the county-run investment pool. Work on the 54,000-square-foot center began in February, when city officials decided the project still was economically feasible.

A construction site for the city's community center received a splash of color over the weekend when children from local schools and youth groups painted a series of murals illustrating life in Brea. The "You Gotta Have Art!" project was sponsored by the city and the Brea Rotary Club as a celebration of the new center. Brea Arts Commissioner Ray Moore designed the 4-by-8-foot mural panels that decorate the construction site at Randolph Avenue and Madison Way.

Plans to install new playground equipment in several city parks has been stalled as officials work to comply with new state-mandated handicap access laws. Woodcrest, Tamarack, Junior High and Country Hills parks were slated to get the new equipment in February, but the laws requiring the city to make the area accessible to the handicapped has pushed back the installation date, said maintenance supervisor Pat McCarron. "We had to put everything on hold. . . .

A proposal to hire a landscape architect and a design artist for the proposed Brea Community Center will go before the City Council today. The council will consider a staff recommendation to hire Meyer & Associates for landscaping design services and Richard Posner to do so-called conceptual designs for the center. In a report to the council, which is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m.

A major renovation of the outdoor basketball courts at Brea Junior High School, a project delayed by Orange County's 1994 bankruptcy filing, should be finished by December, city officials said this week. The seven full-size courts, at Lambert Road near Brea Boulevard, are being renovated with $200,000 in city money and county grants, recreation director Ret Wixted said. "We had the agreements approved, but the project was put on hold because of the bankruptcy," Wixted said.

The city's long-awaited community center, a $7-million facility featuring recreational opportunities for all ages, is set to open later this month. A ceremony set for 1 to 4 p.m. July 27 will commemorate the completion of the facility, which has been planned for nearly 20 years.

Using a tape recording of a frantic 911 call, Brea officials this week dramatically demonstrated the benefits of an emergency dispatching system. The Brea City Council heard a woman's terrified voice cry, "Oh, God, my baby has stopped breathing!" The emergency dispatcher on the other end of the line then led the woman step by step through the medical procedure for reviving her child.

A construction site for the city's community center received a splash of color over the weekend when children from local schools and youth groups painted a series of murals illustrating life in Brea. The "You Gotta Have Art!" project was sponsored by the city and the Brea Rotary Club as a celebration of the new center. Brea Arts Commissioner Ray Moore designed the 4-by-8-foot mural panels that decorate the construction site at Randolph Avenue and Madison Way.

In a move which might cost Brea residents $37,000, the city is considering proposals to create a day labor job center to reduce the heavy foot traffic of casual workers along South Walnut Avenue. Residents took turns advocating and deploring the plan at a council meeting this week, but members voted unanimously to explore the possibility of the development of a center, to be run by a nonprofit agency, where dayworkers can gather for jobs.